Bringing glTF Models Into Vizible

The glTF format provides one of the easiest ways for you to get great looking 3D content into your Vizible VR experiences. See how to make it happen and take your VR creations to the next level.

glTF is a relatively new 3D model file format that is quickly getting broad industry support. As such, it's increasingly common to see 3D modeling tools that let you export to glTF and conversion tools that help you convert models from other formats into glTF. There are also websites like Sketchfab that provides hundreds of thousands of downloadable 3D models in glTF format. glTF models have great support for PBR (physically based rendering) and are also optimized for quick transmission and loading - "the jpeg for VR".

Read on to see how to create, find, and finally bring your glTFs into Vizible.

How to bring a glTF model into Vizible

1. Create or find a glTF model.

You can find glTF models on Sketchfab (just download it in what they call the "autoconverted" format, which is glTF), but if you're creating your own then many 3D modeling tools like Blender, Substance Painter, and Modo have native glTF support so that you can just use the tool directly to create and export glTF models. Other tools like 3DS Max or Maya require a plugin. Microsoft makes a glTF exporter plugin for 3DS Max (documentation here) and Maya (documentation here).

For a full list of available converters and tools, check out this page from Khronos, the developers of the glTF standard. Those who use Unity might be interested in the Unity glTF exporter, and you'll also find a Sketchup glTF exporter there.

If the tool you're using really doesn't let you export to the glTF format, and you can't find a converter, you can also upload the model to Sketchfab and make it downloadable. Sketchfab automatically converts all models on their platform to glTF so that they can be downloaded as glTF. For this example, I'll download a model from Sketchfab. Notice I'm selecting the "autoconverted" format (glTF), not the original format:

Package the model as a glb file

When you download a glTF file, it often comes as a folder of files, including a .gltf file, a .bin file, and a folder of texture files. If you download from Sketchfab, it downloads the glTF folder as a .zip directory that you first have to extract.

To bring a glTF model into Vizible, you have to make sure it's packaged up as a single glb file. A glb file contains all the relevant mesh and texture data in one integrated file. Glb files are becoming more common - you can even drag a .glb file into a Facebook post to upload a 3D model into your feed!

So, once you have your folder ready to go with the required .gltf, .bin, and textures, you can use this simple website to package up the model as a single, unified glb file. Just drag the .gltf, .bin, and textures folder into this page, and it will automatically begin downloading your packaged glb file. The default file name it uses for the glb is "Out", so you may want to rename your glb file to be more descriptive.

If you don't want to use this web-based tool, you can also use this command line tool or this extension to Visual Studio Code to do the conversion.

Here I am packaging the model I just downloaded (once I extracted the zip folder) into a single, friendly glb file.

Drag the glb file into your Vizible Asset Library, and then into your Vizible presentations

Once you have your unified glb file, just drag it into your Vizible asset library, wait for it to upload, and then drag the asset into one of your Vizible Presentations.

There you have it! Let us know if you run into any issues as you bring glTF models into your Vizible presentations.